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The former Everton players could scarcely believe their eyes as the Toffees completely surrendered to Liverpool to lose 4-0 on Wednesday night.

Everton's woeful performance in the Merseyside derby on Wednesday night was met with a response from former players Kevin Kilbane and Peter Reid on BBC Radio 5 Live that was shocked and furious in equal measure.

The Toffees were on the wrong end of one of the most one-sided 90 minutes of football in the famous old fixture in recent memory, as Liverpool ran riot against their neighbours at Anfield.

Divok Origi and Mamadou Sakho both scored in the last few minutes of the first half, and after Ramiro Funes Mori was sent off for a nasty challenge in the second period, Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho added further misery for Roberto Martinez's side.

Analysing on the match on BBC Radio 5 Live, former Toffees man Kilbane could not believe what he was seeing from his old club and compared their performance to children on a playground.

After the Toffees went 4-0 down, the former Republic of Ireland international said: "Everton's defence are just running around chasing the ball, there's five or six lads running after the ball. It's like kids, you know when you're in the playground, kids running after the football.

"[They're] all over the place Everton defensively, no-one's getting hold of them. James McCarthy, who does have a bit of a voice on him, he's stopped to try and get hold of Everton's back four [but] the midfield in front of them with Cleverley and Steven Pienaar, they look all over the place as well. It's such a poor night for them all round."

Former Everton hero Peter Reid was then asked to sum up what he had witnessed, and the man who won two league titles and an FA Cup in the mid-1980s with the club was almost lost for words.

Reid said: "I think we were talking about leaders before, and things have happened during the game with 10 men. I've got to say at the moment the Blues are a shambles. They're all over the place and if it was up to me I'd blow the whistle now, let's get home."

Kilbane then added: "That's exactly what they are. A total shambles tonight from Everton, this should actually realistically be five or six [-nil] as it stands now."

The humiliating manner of Everton's defeat is sure to intensify questions about Roberto Martinez's future, but for now the manager must try to lift his players for the biggest match of their season in three days' time, the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United at Wembley.

Tom Nightingale

After starting to write about football due to lack of any great ability on the pitch, Tom is an NCTJ-qualified sports reporter who has written for Swansea City, the Birmingham Mail, and numerous other publications. An avid Aston Villa fan, he still hasn't got over them not turning up in the 2015 FA Cup final.